Through the grant from the Clear Creek Education FoundationI was able to purchase an ant farm to support our science curriculum for the 4th nine weeks. The grant also provided our class with a digital microscope. Be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this page to see an incredible sight from right inside our ant farm!
We are studying ants, and the life cycle as part of our insect unit. We have made ,created, and learned some amazing things!
Check this out! Here we are pretending to be red ants. Can you find the queen ant?
The pictures below shows 2 guard ants deciding which ants can come into their colony and which ants cannot. We have learned that the guard ants use their antennaes to smell other ants and figure out if they belong to the colony or not. These 2 guard ants did a fantastic job!
[ invalid file: ant_act.wmv ]
Next our REAL ants arrived and we put them in our gel ant farm on Friday morning.
We are going to log every few days our observations about the ants and
what we see them doing.
Day 1-
First they noticed that when I added the ants to their new habitat, they were very still and curled into a ball. They realized that I had faked the ants into hibernation by keeping them cold in the fridge.
Day 2
These are pictures I took on Saturday. The day the floods came to Greene!
Day 4
They built tunnels.
Some of the ants are dead.
The ants are bringing the gel to the top from the tunnels they are making.
The gel looks like crystals at the top.
The ants are all huddled at the bottom of the farm.
They have started the sideways tunnel.
Day 6
Most of the gel is at the top.
The ants are running here and there.
The builder ants have finished the sideways tunnel.
They have added a small sideways
tunnel in the back as well.
Day 8
There are a lot of ants.
The builder ants have dug a alot of tunnels.
There are not any new tunnels today.
The ants are still huddled at the bottom of the farm.
Day 12
The ants made a new curved small tunnel
from the side to a tunnel already made.
The ants look like they are making a
new tunnel from the bottom.
We see a tunnel going from the side to the bottom.
Day 14
The builder ants made a new tunnel.
You can see it starting on the left corner going down to the bottom.
If you look at Day 8's picture you will see where the tunnel began. The ants are still bunched up at the bottom.
They finished another tunnel here.
It goes from the side to the bottom of the chamber.
The dead ants have been moved to the top by the housekeeper ants.
Day
These are close up pictures we took of the ants in our farm using our new digital microscope.
Here you can see all the legs attached to the ants middle body section the thorax.
Here you can see all the hairs that are
covering the ants body.
This is a great shot of the ants compound eyes, mandibles, and her head.
Here is a great shot of the ant in the bottom tunnel and a side view of the antennae.
This is a good look at the three body parts every insect has.
Head
Thorax
Abdoman
Check out the hairs!
Just to give you an idea of how large our microscope is enhancing the ants from inside our farm, check out one of our first graders standing next to it! WOW!
ANTS! ANTS! ANTS!
Through the grant from the Clear Creek Education Foundation I was able to purchase an ant farm to support our science curriculum for the 4th nine weeks. The grant also provided our class with a digital microscope. Be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this page to see an incredible sight from right inside our ant farm!
We are studying ants, and the life cycle as part of our insect unit. We have made ,created, and learned some amazing things!
Check this out! Here we are pretending to be red ants. Can you find the queen ant?
The pictures below shows 2 guard ants deciding which ants can come into their colony and which ants cannot. We have learned that the guard ants use their antennaes to smell other ants and figure out if they belong to the colony or not. These 2 guard ants did a fantastic job!
[ invalid file: ant_act.wmv ]
Next our REAL ants arrived and we put them in our gel ant farm on Friday morning.
We are going to log every few days our observations about the ants and
what we see them doing.
Day 1-
First they noticed that when I added the ants to their new habitat, they were very still and curled into a ball. They realized that I had faked the ants into hibernation by keeping them cold in the fridge.
Day 2
These are pictures I took on Saturday. The day the floods came to Greene!
Day 4
They built tunnels.
Some of the ants are dead.
The ants are bringing the gel to the top from the tunnels they are making.
The gel looks like crystals at the top.
The ants are all huddled at the bottom of the farm.
They have started the sideways tunnel.
Day 6
Most of the gel is at the top.
The ants are running here and there.
The builder ants have finished the sideways tunnel.
They have added a small sideways
tunnel in the back as well.
Day 8
There are a lot of ants.
The builder ants have dug a alot of tunnels.
There are not any new tunnels today.
The ants are still huddled at the bottom of the farm.
Day 12
The ants made a new curved small tunnel
from the side to a tunnel already made.
The ants look like they are making a
new tunnel from the bottom.
We see a tunnel going from the side to the bottom.
Day 14
The builder ants made a new tunnel.
You can see it starting on the left corner going down to the bottom.
If you look at Day 8's picture you will see where the tunnel began. The ants are still bunched up at the bottom.
They finished another tunnel here.
It goes from the side to the bottom of the chamber.
The dead ants have been moved to the top by the housekeeper ants.
Day
These are close up pictures we took of the ants in our farm using our new digital microscope.
Here you can see all the legs attached to the ants middle body section the thorax.
Here you can see all the hairs that are
covering the ants body.
This is a great shot of the ants compound eyes, mandibles, and her head.
Here is a great shot of the ant in the bottom tunnel and a side view of the antennae.
This is a good look at the three body parts every insect has.
Head
Thorax
Abdoman
Check out the hairs!
Just to give you an idea of how large our microscope is enhancing the ants from inside our farm, check out one of our first graders standing next to it! WOW!